Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Chapter 143: Test Of Generosity Part Nine

Six months have passed now and Alicia has settled into her job of being Chris's 'Assistant'. Though it is said that she is to keep track of his day to day life, it is more of her being dragged here and there by Chris himself. During this time she had tried to 'help' many noble girls climb into Chris's bed only to find out the next day that they were thrown out once they were found. Luckily after about the tenth time Chris had finally gotten the hint that she was not interested in him in the slightest. Which allowed Alicia to relax a bit. Luckily she was good at her job and Chris did not cast her out.

Also in the past six months Alicia had finally filled out and no longer looked malnourished. She had even gained a bit more strength allowing her to easily handle her sword. Every morning before her daily duties, she would go and train with the knights for two hours. 

It was a normal day and Alicia was sitting in on one of Chris's meetings when the door slammed open and a guard came rushing in. "Prince Chris! Word has come from His Majesty! The Dukedom of Duke has invaded the south! Their army is one hundred thousand large!" 

Although she shouldn't feel happy, Alicia couldn't help it in this situation as this meant the real trial had finally begun. And so a day later Alicia set out in a carriage with Chris towards the southern border. The aim for the Duke Dukedom was to annex the farmlands of the south. The Duke Dukedom only had a small number of farm lands and with its ever expanding population it needed more, in order to feed its people. Alicia could understand this but at the same time she felt it was not good to start a war over resources when trade talks could be called into play. But every country ran differently and had their own ideals. Warmongering nobles who turn a profit off of war would instill the fact that war is the only option to the higher ups. Then there were nation rulers who would prefer to go to war just for the sake of going to war.

It took almost a week to reach the southern border base camp. This time Alicia was adorned in light leather armor with metal plates on it just like the armor she wore every day outside the Illusion World. When they walked into the command tent the old generals who no longer strolled the battlefield all looked at Alicia with disgusted eyes. These were men who thought that all women needed to do was stay at home and pump out kids. So seeing a young girl like Alicia walk into the command tent they were already boiling with rage.

"Your Highness what the hell is this brat doing here? Should she not have been left back in your palace to learn how to handle a household?" One of the old generals angrily roared.

"General Hayes, if I was you, I would watch what you say or your old life will be over before you even knew it. This girl has beat half of our top knights at her current age." Chris gave an angry glare at the old general as he said this.

The old general snorted but did not carry on. Seeing how no one else had anything to say Chris nodded his head to another general who then laid out a map and started to explain their plan. "The Dukedom of Duke has to go through this valley in order to reach our lands. The valley runs deep and is nothing but rocky ledges and a river. If we can block this off we can halt their advance." 

Alicia looked at the map on the table and frowned. From what she saw, what the general had said was correct but the farmlands in Kingdom relied on that river to water their fields. If it was suddenly blocked off then a famine would spread shortly after. The crops would all die without a sufficient source of water. Leaving a shortage of food.

Seeing how no one else was going to contradict what was being said, Alicia couldn't take it. Though it might stop the war for a while it was not a good idea to block that river off and turn their own country's' crops into waste. "If you do that you will be killing more citizens than any war could. That river that is in that valley is essential to the crops that we grow here. Are you trying to slowly kill this country due to hunger?" 

The general who came up with this plan looked at Alicia, his face red with anger to the point that his veins were clearly visible and protruding out. "Little girl, in war sometimes people need to be sacrificed for the good of the many. If a hundred thousand people need to die for us to keep our lands then so be it!" 

Alicia couldn't believe the words coming out of this person's mouth. It was fine to kill innocent people to win a war? Alicia's sense of justice welled up within her as she drew her sword and pointed it at the General who had just spoken. "Fine! If it is fine to sacrifice a few people to turn the tides of war, then we should start with you! Your head can be the opening act of this massacre you want to start!"

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